January 15, 2011
Marwencol Showtimes At The Uptown
The Scout Rifle: Theory For Beginners
Co-written with Duncan Nigh
If you listen to popular games and movies, rifles come in two styles. Sniper rifles for crazy long distance head shots, and assault rifles to blast the guy in the next room.
But there’s this fuzzy mid-range zone that is mostly the dominant range of hunting rifles. A 100-200 yard area that isn’t exactly sniping, but certainly isn’t guns blazing either.
This is where the theory of the scout rifle comes in. Jeff Cooper, an American Lt. Colonel, was a strong proponent of scout rifles. He described it as “a general-purpose rifle is a conveniently portable, individually operated firearm, capable of striking a single decisive blow, on a live target of up to 200 kilos in weight, at any distance at which the operator can shoot with the precision necessary to place a shot in a vital area of the target.”
They are meant to be light-weight, maneuverable, and fast to aim and fire with. The key aspects are a forward-mounted low-power scope, a ching sling that assists as a shooting rest. Designed for light infantry or mobile hunters, the scout rifle should to be easy to shoot, easy to reload, and easy to move with.
It’s a concept I’m trying to embrace with my recent purchase of a 7.62X39mm rifle. Its a Russian SKS, made in Tula back in 1952. But its been upgraded to have a collapsible stock, and a rail in the forward position.
The dominant scout rifle concept is a .308 bolt action rifle. I’m shooting something a little smaller, in a semi-auto configuration. But it still very much falls into the scout rifle category.
As part of my attempt to create a scout rifle for myself, I’ve been trying to choose a set of optics to mount of the forward rail. Essentially I have four options: a Vortex red dot sight, a Barska multi-reticle sight, a cheap Bushnell red dot, or just use open sights. The open sights on an SKS are adjustable, so once you know your yardage you can shift them to compensate properly.
The Bushnell glass is terrible, so that one’s out right off the bat. One of the other considerations in a scout rifle is the ability to return to the open iron sights quickly if necessary. While I like having different reticles in the Barska sight, it requires an Allan key in two different places. The Vortex strike-fire on the other hand uses a finger tension system that is just as strong, but much faster to take on and off.
The Vortex also comes with a 2X magnifier, bringing it much closer to the scout rifle ideal. The idea is that only a little bit of magnification is necessary, and that you should be able to see through the scope from quite some distance, preferably with both eyes open.
There are still a few things required to make my SKS a proper scout rifle. A bi-pod is often recommended, and some sort of a mobile sling is a necessity.
The scout rifle has caught on in North America, with a whole community of shooters and hunters taking it up. The focus on speed and flexibility is a shift away from large caliber rifles where the primary purpose is calculating impossibly distant shots with mammoth bullets.
Check back for a field report on the SKS scout rifle in the coming weeks when we put it to the test.
To contact the author of this post: edward.osborne@wildgunmen.com
where’s your knivez and low gravity?
I will recommend not to hold off until you earn enough amount of cash to order goods! You should just get the mortgage loans or just car loan and feel fine